Day 311: "Return, O Lord, Deliver My Life..."
Read: Psalm 6
Seldom do I really look at and consider how a Psalm is prefaced before I
will dig into studying the main body of prose that starts with verse 1
and end with verse whatever it happens to be. I am not a music
person. I tried a violin and a clarinet when I was in elementary school
but only found myself brutalizing the instrument and my mothers ears
with the noise that came out. The high pitched squeal that emanated
from the violin would put finger nails on a chalk board to shame. But
today, I decided that I might change that tune to prayerfully consider just
how the Psalmist who wrote this song may have felt in his heart, the
prayerful choices behind some of his instrumentation.
The
Psalmist tells the music director to this present Psalm 6 with "stringed
instruments" and an "eight stringed harp." I would love to have heard
just what the music director came up with. If I were the one with
the baton when this song was played, I do not know how it couldn't have
been anything other than the most sorrowful, tear jerking, piece of
music I would ever want to hear. This Psalm is filled with the language
of great sorrows, humiliations and hatred of sin which are the most
easily recognizable signs of a contrite and broken spirit. You do
not have to be a musician to know the tune and instrumentation would be
harsh and sad and probably played in minor keys.
Look for
yourself and read the language the Psalmist used ~ rebuke me not O Lord
in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath, for I am languishing, my
bones are troubled, my soul is greatly troubled, for how long O Lord? I am weary with my moaning, Lord I flood my bed with tears, I drench my couch with my weeping, eyes waste away with grief, weak because of all my foes, depart from me all you workers of evil. As the one who politely sits there squirming in the Kings throne room listening to
this, my only thoughts would be "O Lord, Deliver My Life!" "Deliver the
Kings life!" "Deliver all of our lives!" Not from the song itself, but from my own brokenness that I am deeply feeling!
Something happens in the midst of David's and our cries of lament. Beginning in verse 4 when David cries out, "Return O Lord, deliver my life for the sake of your steadfast love." I suspect that David had turned his eyes elsewhere and was now discovering that living life in his own way created a vast emptiness in his spirit that was crushing him. His deepest longing for God reached the point where it absolutely
had to be set free, the cork exploding off the champagne bottle! Verse 9
is amazing in exclaiming at the top of his lungs the truest, deepest
surrender of his spirit to God. Not feeling God's presence in your life? Shout, Scream, Pray: "Return, O Lord, Deliver My Life!" "O Lord, deliver my life, save me, for the sake of your steadfast love!"
Let Us Pray: Jesus the Christ, You walk with me. You know intimately
the pain, The suffering, The gritty reality of human and earthly life. I
know that You cry out with me, And Your heart breaks with mine. Knowing
that You have walked this path brings me strength, And hope. I know I am
not alone. Sustaining Spirit, fill me. Mend the torn pieces in my heart
with Your inexhaustible presence and love. Fill me with the hope and
strength that is Your Divine Movement, sweeping me into the Divine
Dance. It is to You O Divine One, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End, the First and the Last, the One God of heaven and earth,
that I cry… "Return, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of
your steadfast love." Heal me and make me whole. Amen.
http://www.youtube.com/
Read: Psalm 6
Seldom do I really look at and consider how a Psalm is prefaced before I will dig into studying the main body of prose that starts with verse 1 and end with verse whatever it happens to be. I am not a music person. I tried a violin and a clarinet when I was in elementary school but only found myself brutalizing the instrument and my mothers ears with the noise that came out. The high pitched squeal that emanated from the violin would put finger nails on a chalk board to shame. But today, I decided that I might change that tune to prayerfully consider just how the Psalmist who wrote this song may have felt in his heart, the prayerful choices behind some of his instrumentation.
The Psalmist tells the music director to this present Psalm 6 with "stringed instruments" and an "eight stringed harp." I would love to have heard just what the music director came up with. If I were the one with the baton when this song was played, I do not know how it couldn't have been anything other than the most sorrowful, tear jerking, piece of music I would ever want to hear. This Psalm is filled with the language of great sorrows, humiliations and hatred of sin which are the most easily recognizable signs of a contrite and broken spirit. You do not have to be a musician to know the tune and instrumentation would be harsh and sad and probably played in minor keys.
Look for yourself and read the language the Psalmist used ~ rebuke me not O Lord in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath, for I am languishing, my bones are troubled, my soul is greatly troubled, for how long O Lord? I am weary with my moaning, Lord I flood my bed with tears, I drench my couch with my weeping, eyes waste away with grief, weak because of all my foes, depart from me all you workers of evil. As the one who politely sits there squirming in the Kings throne room listening to this, my only thoughts would be "O Lord, Deliver My Life!" "Deliver the Kings life!" "Deliver all of our lives!" Not from the song itself, but from my own brokenness that I am deeply feeling!
Something happens in the midst of David's and our cries of lament. Beginning in verse 4 when David cries out, "Return O Lord, deliver my life for the sake of your steadfast love." I suspect that David had turned his eyes elsewhere and was now discovering that living life in his own way created a vast emptiness in his spirit that was crushing him. His deepest longing for God reached the point where it absolutely had to be set free, the cork exploding off the champagne bottle! Verse 9 is amazing in exclaiming at the top of his lungs the truest, deepest surrender of his spirit to God. Not feeling God's presence in your life? Shout, Scream, Pray: "Return, O Lord, Deliver My Life!" "O Lord, deliver my life, save me, for the sake of your steadfast love!"
Let Us Pray: Jesus the Christ, You walk with me. You know intimately the pain, The suffering, The gritty reality of human and earthly life. I know that You cry out with me, And Your heart breaks with mine. Knowing that You have walked this path brings me strength, And hope. I know I am not alone. Sustaining Spirit, fill me. Mend the torn pieces in my heart with Your inexhaustible presence and love. Fill me with the hope and strength that is Your Divine Movement, sweeping me into the Divine Dance. It is to You O Divine One, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the One God of heaven and earth, that I cry… "Return, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love." Heal me and make me whole. Amen.
http://www.youtube.com/
Kari Jobe - Be Still My Soul (In You I Rest) [Lyrics]
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Music video by Kari Jobe performing Be Still My Soul (In You I Rest) [Lyrics]. (P) (C) 2013 Sparrow
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